A trip Around Penang Island with Marissa

My inner Sanctum.
My daughter and i took a drive around the Island yesterday, just to get out of the house and soak in the sunshine, We made a few stops first at the Horse's stable belonging to my friend Muthalif located in the vincinity of the Youth Park here. my daughter made a new friend, an Arabian Stallion by the name of 'Finis'. It was a beautiful process of getting to know one another as i watched my daughter much afraid of the horse and the horse checking her out by sniffing her fingers in the beginning and twenty minutes latter I am trying to drag my daughter away from hugging and kissing the animal.
Our next stop was at the Spice Garden in Batu Beringgi across the street from the sea. It was a good walk through with all kinds of tropical plants and gigantic trees, waterfalls and running brooks that made up the sound of the surrounding. As we alked closer back to the entrance area we could hear the waves rolling on tothe shore giving it a rythm to our senses like the in and out of our breath, the Universal Breath. It was good to be in the prisitne forest like environment and the walk helpedd to bring us closer to our centeredness in nature. The Spice garden would make for a great retreat if you wish to run a meditation workshop.
Further on down the road we stopped by Teluk Bahang and made some enquiries about the nature trails available there but due to time limitations we did not make any trips. I talked to an elderly malay man who was whittling away on a piece of wood to make a knife handle. He told me it was from a kind of local wood called 'Kayu Manis' which is a hard wood and perfect for what he was making. next we stopped at the Teluk Bahang Dam and took some pictures. From there we drove the nex few miles towards Balik Pulau and it was a nice drive as there was hardly any vehicle was on the windy road. My duaghter told me how blessed she felt livng on the island that has so much vegetatin that made it seemed cool in most parts. But the island is trnsforming and in ost case it is not for the better as more and more buildings keep taking up whatever space available to be develoed. Blame it on ecnomics as development in any form spells income for the developpers. Not that we need anymore lodgings but we have to cater to those who can afford and are willing to pay for a piece of the Island calling it their second and third homes; most are foreigners from Singapore and Taiwan, Hong Kong and some European countries. It is a very sad situation for those born and raised here and not having a place of their own with most forced to migrate away to the mainland. The island is being sold a piece a a time and while some laugh their way to the banks others suffer.
Most foreighners I nkow of here have even become more arrogant and possesive than the locals themselves making it their right to spread money and demand respect by hook or by crook Employing locals whose connections and knowledge holds sawy in the community these new breed of 'Robber Barons,' are displacing lives and disrupting the integration of local communities by divisivenss. For so long as there is a rift in society between the different racial groups there is a weakness to be exploited at all levels. Here particularly in Georgetown it is the Chinese who hold sway selling out whatever is saleable, land, homes, businesses, you name it. Today there is emerging a different kind of colonialism, it is called occupation by investment. Money talks and bullshit walks! If you are smart and savay with the politics of the day you may find a niche to make yourself a fortune and live to brag about your successes to your grandchildren; how you sold out what was not rightfully yours to begin with. How you help to create paradise for those who are bored stiff with their own homes back where they came from and how you sold your souls a the expense of those who really and trully were the indegienous of this Island State.
Like a silent Tsunami, ther is very little the poor and displaced Penangites can do about it but just struggle on to survive day in day out hoping to die before it gets too tought too live. Those who have made it and are enjoying their well earned retirement have little to say or simply play ignorance as they dwell happily in their well earned comfort zone waiting for theri departure, but for those whose livlihood is greatly affected by these so called rapid development, it seems their days are numbered. Like the Malay community of fishermen living off the Jelutung Highway, they continue to keep on building out into the sea, living like pariahs in their own state. For months now there is no water supply to these off shore impermanent strutures where those livng here has to haul from nearby residential areas. It is the fate of the Malays to live in the shadow of the other races here and will come a time when they will become if not already, gardeners and drivers to their Chinese Bosses who in turn are drivers and gardeners to the rich foreigners. Ther is not sense of pride anymore especially among those who had all the good intentions of making this Island a home for all its citizens before anyone else, there is only taking care of the business of making money any which way they can. Like a slowly rotting apple this Island of my borth will end up beng a Tourist Paradise but a hell to live in for my fellow Penangites.
I hope and pray that all those who have taken advantage through their wealth to occupy a piece of this island property to reflect upon at what cost to the locals. I would welcome you here but I would rather you not claim what is is not yours by simply being able to dish out your wealth and take what you can; it is like visitng a beautiful garden and wanting to own it too. Please consider what the remifications of your insatiable demands have on the people of this state; there is little or no trickling of wealth as you might think! Yes, the rich get filthier and richer and the poor well...fuckem! If you are men and women of integrity and compassion I say wake up and tell yourself enough in enough, do not get swindled by those who make the promises for your entertainment gauranteed while they find ways and means to fulfill your desires at other's expense. If you come here to do businees be sure to spread the wealth you make and not join the greedy train of making more than you need and going home to your own friends and families to brag about how well you did or how easily the locals were taken for a ride. What goes around will come around as promised.
I am not anti-development but i abhor waste and displacement of the lives of those who have no means to fight for their rights. I feel colonialism is very much alive here and it is ironcally true that this has been recognized as a World Heritage City (Georgetown) but when you there is three times more vehicles than residents there is something definitely wrong no matter how one looks at it. When old colonial era buildings are being renovated and whitwashed, they reminds me of mausoleums reminding me of the colonial power that had syphone this countries' wealth in history. it is not the locals who benefit not evn the common laborer as most of these construction jobs are done by foreigners from poorer countries at a much lower rate of income. The local man has been sidelined while the wealth pours into the hands of the few who are out to make hay while the sun is till shining.
And you wonder why crime and violence is on the rise and why corruption is here to stay, when wealth and welfare of the society is being pandered to the highest bidder.
Our drive around the Island took my daughter and I to my niece's house n Balik Pulau where we hung out with my grand nieces. The house relatively new is buitl out into the ricefield and the single dirt road that connects it to the main road is being threatend to be engulfed by the jungle. Such Is, I rest my case.